1755

English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.

1784

The first balloon is flown in Ireland.

1813

U.S. troops under James Wilkinson lay siege to the Spanish-held city of Mobile in future state of Alabama.

1858

At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists.

1861

President Lincoln mobilizes Federal army.

1865

Abraham Lincoln dies from John Wilkes Booth‘s assassination bullet.

1871

‘Wild Bill’ Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.

1912

With her band playing on the deck, the ocean liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic.

1917

British forces defeat the Germans at the Battle of Arras.

1923

The first sound films shown to a paying audience are exhibited at the Rialto Theater in New York City.

1923

Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetes.

1940

French and British troops land at Narvik, Norway.

1945

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park home.

1948

Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.

1952

President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.

1955

Ray Kroc starts the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants.

1959

Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins a U.S. goodwill tour.

1960

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes at Shaw University.

1971

North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American troops are on a rescue mission.

1986

U.S. warplanes attack Libya.

Today in History: Born on April 15

1452

Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, scientist and visionary

1684

Catherine I, empress of Russia

1741

Charles Wilson Peale, portrait painter and inventor

1800

Sir James Clark Ross, Scottish explorer who located the Magnetic North Pole.

1832

Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet, created the precursor to the comic strip.https://ab612c9a00732a1ea988fd7059c2aef7.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

1843

Henry James, writer and critic.

1874

George Harrison Shull, American botanist, developer of hybrid corn.

1874

Johannes Stark, Novel Prize-winning German physicist.

1880

Max Wertheimer, Czech-born psychologist.

1889

Asa Phillip Randolph, American labor leader and Civil Rights advocate.https://ab612c9a00732a1ea988fd7059c2aef7.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

1889

Thomas Hart Benton, painter, muralist.

1898

Bessie Smith, American blues singer.

1904

Arshile Gorky, abstract painter.

1922

Neville Mariner, conductor.

1922

Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicagohttps://ab612c9a00732a1ea988fd7059c2aef7.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

1932

Eva Figes, British novelist.

1940

Jeffrey Archer, English novelist and politician (Kane and Abel, Honor Among Thieves).

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